Wednesday, October 17, 2007

See a trend? Three straight Red Sox starting pitchers couldn't go 5 innings. The sole exception, of course, is tomorrow's do or die starter, Josh Beckett. Terry Francona has had a quicker hook than in the regular season, and rightly so, but the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 losers to the Cleveland Indians last night, have experienced a rotation-wide failure of its starting pitching staff, with that one notable exception. Wakes breezed through the first 4 innings and his dazzling dancing knuckleball was nearly unhittable. But everything came apart in the 5th inning. I won't go into to all the details, you've probably seen the game or read the morning papers, but Cleveland ended up with 7 runs against Wakefield and Manny Delcarmen. The Sox bravely tried to start a comeback, hitting back to back to back home runs by Youk, Papi and Manny. ALL their runs in this series have come via the long ball, and that ain't good! But that was it! Finito. The Cleveland bullpen is a good one, and they shut Boston down the rest of the way.

3 games to 1...a tough road the Red Sox have to navigate. After the day off today, it will be the game 1 starters, Sabathia and Beckett, yet again. And, with a win, if they win, the series goes back to Fenway for the final 2. IF. That's a big if. Beating Sabathia twice in one series will be tough, but let's face it, this might be the year of Colorado and Cleveland in an "all C" World Series.

Click on the title of this post for Dan Shaughnessy's Boston Globe article on the Red Sox and the precarious position their starters have put them in. The hitters, too! And I still agree with Tito's decision to go with Wakes rather than a three day rested Josh Beckett. It's the pitching, not the manager's decision, that has put them where they are.

Enjoy this off day Hump Day, be safe, and be well. And thanks for reading. I'd love to read and respond to your comments....do you agree with the decision to go with Wakefield? Or not. See ya!!

4 Comments:

These games have been so horrible and depressing, I actually fell asleep last night during the 8th inning. Of course, I didn't miss much..all the damage had been done and all that was left to do was lose.

Funny Mike, and hi Laura. I wasn't able to get back on the computer until this morning, so this is a late reply. But thanks for the great comments and the moment of hilarity. It's a game tonight that I have so many unexpressed feelings inside me....I let some of those out in my Thursday morning, a too early foggy and dark morning, post. I hope you can read, and respond. We're all in this together.

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